


never been a hero (always been a zero)

by ashleighhayleau



Series: never been a hero [1]
Category: Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: ... Well to an extent, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Chuck is sad and Josie is there, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, I hint at a triangle between Josie & Reggie & Chuck, Mentioned Reggie Mantle, Romantic Friendship, Secret Crush, Soft!Chuck, There smalls bits of fluff, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-14
Updated: 2017-12-14
Packaged: 2019-02-14 14:42:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13009980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleighhayleau/pseuds/ashleighhayleau
Summary: "He pulls out his phone his phone to call Reggie, his finger hovering over the contact in hesitation, before he scrolls to another contact. Chuck isn’t even sure they’ll answer his call, but he clicks the name and calls. It rings three times before they answer."...Josie has a heart to heart with Chuck in the middle of the night at Pop's.





	never been a hero (always been a zero)

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I have actually written to completion in a while and I'm so nervous to post it but here we are. Tell me what you think.

Chuck hadn’t planned for his night to turn out the way it had, alone on a park bench with a bottle of cheap vodka that he’d bought with his fake ID on the Southside. But he couldn’t deal with his parents fighting anymore.

Crying alone, slightly drunk in the park at 1:30 at night, wasn’t exactly the best plan, but that had been the outcome of him grabbing his keys and storming out of the house five hours earlier. Now he was too drunk to drive, and he doesn’t think he could survive the walk home with the way his vision is blurring (he’s not even sure he wants to be there).

He pulls out his phone his phone to call Reggie, his finger hovering over the contact in hesitation, before he scrolls to another contact. Chuck isn’t even sure they’ll answer his call, but he clicks the name and calls. It rings three times before they answer.

“Chuck?” they say in a tired, disgruntled voice. “It’s like 1:30 in the morning, why the hell are you calling me? I thought you changed. I swear if it’s for-”

“Josie, I really need someone to pick me up.” He says, voice heavy with grief, words a little slurred.

“Are you… okay?” Josie asks, voice softer and tinged with concern for the boy on the other side of the receiver.

“Can you just pick me up… please?” He says, a sob escaping him.

“Sure… where are you?” She asks, and he mumbles something about being in Pickens Park. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Thanks.” Chuck says softly.

He hangs up and stares out into the dark park wondering if things between his parents would ever get better or would they just get worse. They’d argued every night this week, and they hadn’t cared if he heard. He tried drowning them out with music and, rather aggressively, painting, but even art couldn’t distract him. Tears pool in his eyes as he recalls their latest fight.

_

  
_“I’m not happy, Harry. Why can’t you see that?” Chuck’s mother yells, tone more exhausted than angry._

_“How could I possible know that, Alice? You’re always gone, off to God knows where, for days. Chuck misses you.”_

_“Don’t do that. Don’t you dare use our son to make me feel bad. Don’t try to guilt me into staying in this marriage. I’m going to stay with my mom… indefinitely.” She said as she stormed out of the house._

_He watched from the stairs as his dad paced back and forth by the door._

_“Low blow bringing me up.” His dad looked over at him, clearly startled by the sudden sound of his voice._

_“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”_

_“If I wasn’t supposed to hear it then you two wouldn’t have been yelling so loud. I’m pretty sure the whole neighborhood heard.”_

_“Chuck,” his dad starts with a sigh. “We-”_

_“Save it, dad, I heard. My ears are functioning properly, they have been all week, and for the past year.” Chuck said trying to keep his voice even. “I’ve heard enough to know these problems aren’t new.”_

_Chuck marched down the stairs, grabbed his keys, stormed out the door just as his mom had done a few minutes earlier._

_

 

“Chuck.” Josie said softly as she approached the bench he was on.

Chuck turned and looked towards Josie as he wiped the fresh tears from his face, trying and failing to hide any evidence that he had been crying just as she walked up to him.

“Josie,” He said with faint smile. “You’re here.”

“Well, I couldn’t let you drive home drunk. Come on, Clayton, let’s get you home.”

He didn’t say a word as they walked towards Mrs. McCoy’s car, his pace a little slower than normal. The ride was quiet. Josie didn’t ask about the state he was in and he didn’t really care to share the news of his parent’s imploding marriage, so they sat in silence, only the soft hum of the air conditioning filling the air.

“Can we stop at Pop’s?” Chuck said quietly, slight apprehension in his voice.

“Chuck, I-” Her voiced died in her throat at she glanced at the sad boy beside her. “Sure.”

 

The familiar bell at Pop’s rang as they walked through the door, and it provided Chuck with a sense of comfort and happiness. He’s certain most people in this town felt this way about the diner. Pop’s was almost empty, considering the fact that it was now a couple minutes to two, so finding a place to sit wasn’t a problem. He walked over to the counter and ordered two milkshakes and a basket of cheese fries before sitting in the booth across from Josie. He didn’t say anything, he just stared down at his hands. When he glanced up at Josie she was staring at him with an expression that he’d never seen on her, he realizes that it’s a mixture of genuine concern and pity. Chuck never liked to be pitied but he’s sure that with the state he’s in, she can’t help but feel bad for him.

“Why’d you call me and not Reggie? Or one of your other friends?” Josie suddenly asks.

“We’re not really speaking right now.”

He doesn’t tell her that it’s because of her and that if Reggie knew that he’d call her, he’d flip. Chuck and Reggie hadn’t spoken in weeks, since Reggie found out that Chuck liked her too. He wasn’t going to tell Reggie, he barely even wanted to admit it to himself, but he did. He’d only told him that he liked Josie because he couldn’t listen to Reggie go on and on about her anymore. They were best friends and now they weren’t anything because they like the same girl.

They’re quiet when the waitress places their order on the table. Chuck mumbles a ‘thanks’ before she walks away. Neither of them reach for their milkshakes, they sit in a comfortable silence. Chuck thinks now, sitting across from Josie, that this was a bad idea. He should have just let her take him home, or better yet he shouldn’t have drank alone in the park and called her to pick him up. He should’ve taken his chances and walked.

“Chuck,” Josie finally spoke. “Why were you drinking alone in the park?”

He opened then closed his mouth, not sure how to say, _“My parent’s marriage is crumbling, and has been for a while now, but tonight they exploded, and my mom walked out and I don’t think she’s coming back.”_

“You don’t have to tell me.”

“No. It’s my parents,” He sucks in a breath before he continues. “Uh… They’ve been fighting a lot more lately and tonight, I think, was the beginning of the end. I sat on the stairs and watched my mom leave, she does that a lot when they fight, but this time I don’t think she’s coming back.” He said as a single tear runs down his face.

Josie doesn’t say anything, she just reaches over and places her hand on top and his, rubbing comforting circles into his skin. In truth, she knew what it was like to have one of your parents leave, and fear they weren’t coming back, but she never told anyone how it made her feel, besides Mel and Val.

“Jos, they’ve been fighting for a year now, but this week is the worse it’s been and- I just couldn’t handle it. I grabbed my keys, I started to drive, and I ended up on the Southside buying a bottle of vodka that taste like rubbing alcohol. I drove to Pickens park and I started to drink. I thought that drinking would somehow magically make me forget, for even just an hour, but it just made it worse.” The tears are now running full force down his face. He knows that he should probably be embarrassed, crying in front of the girl he likes in the local dinner at 2:30 in the morning, but he doesn’t. He feels comfortable letting his guard down around her.

Josie walks around to his side of the booth, and she does something he doesn’t expect. She hugs him and tells him everything will turn out okay, even though he knows it won’t be, but still the words provide comfort. The one constant that he’d had in his life, besides sports, is crumbling and has been for some time now, he just didn’t want to admit it to himself. He was good at that, denying the truth.

“I don’t get why they can’t just work this out, they’ve been married my whole life and I’ve never heard them fight as much as I have in the past year, it was worse this week, like ten times worse. I want to fix things for them, but I know it’s a little too late to try to mend things. I feel so powerless right now.”

“Chuck, you can’t fix things between them, that’s up to them.” She says, and he’s suddenly aware of how close her face is to his, if he wanted to, he could kiss her. He doesn’t want the first time he kisses her to be when he’s crying over his parents crumbling marriage with the smell of cheap vodka lingering on his breath though.

“I know, but I’ve never known a world where my mom and dad aren’t together. A world where my mom doesn’t come to my games, and take me and my dad out for Pop’s, whether we win or lose. A world where my dad doesn’t get me to help him pick out a gift for my mom’s birthday. A world where we aren’t a family… it just doesn’t make sense in my mind.” A round of quiet sobs wrecks his body.

“The last time I saw my parents happy was when I was twelve and my dad sold his first song.” Josie starts, but then for a moment pauses, hesitating before she says, “He took my mom and I out for ice cream to celebrate the day he told us. He was so happy for a while after that, and so was my mom, they were both so happy. The next few times he tried to sell a song didn’t go so well, and he started getting angry and shutting my mom out. They argued after I went to sleep and soon after that my dad would leave for months out of time. He started using drugs at some point, and that made their problems even worse. They haven’t gotten divorced, but honestly, I wish they would. I feel like they’d both be happier divorced, instead of just tolerating each then yelling at each other when they think I’m sleeping.”

“Maybe I should be happy my mom left because at least I won’t have to hear them screaming at each other while I try to drown them out. Do you ever miss your dad being around?” He says quietly.

“Some days, but most days, if I’m honest, I don’t. It’s always ‘Josephine, why do you waste your time singing that trash that we call pop music’ or ‘Josephine, you came in too late on the bridge’. He’s not the same guy as the one I knew when I was twelve. But if things are meant to work out then they will, but if they don’t I’ll be here.” Josie says as she gives him small, comforting squeeze. “You can’t fix everything, Chuck.”

“Thanks, Jos.” He says with a small smile forming on his lips. “I know it’s kind of stupid, but I wanted to be their hero and save their marriage. I know that’s not possible, but I still wish I could. I’ve never been able to save anything that I cared about though, that’s probably why I have no friends now because even though I’ve changed, everyone treats me the same.” He says looking down at the table.

“Hey, we’re friends. I know you’re not the same guy as last year and once everyone comes around, they’ll see that too.” She tilts face towards hers and smiles. “and besides what are friends for, if not to pick you up from a park, drunk, and have heart to hearts in diners at two in the morning.” He chuckles of that.

“When you put it that way, I sound pathetic.”

“You know I didn’t mean it that way.” She says, amusement in her voice.

The conversation was lighter after that. They’d order new milkshakes and just talked. He felt a little better knowing that Josie would still be there even though his life was crumbling before him. He’d started the night sad and alone with no friends he could go to and now he was at Pop’s with Josie leaning against his shoulder smiling and cracking jokes, it was nice. He felt like everything would turn out okay.

 

Josie pulled up to his house an hour later.

“Thank you,” Chuck said as he turned to face Josie. “for picking up and talking me down tonight. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you didn’t pick up.”

“You’re welcome.” She says, the corners of her lips tilting up. “You think you’ll be okay?”

“I don’t know, but I feel better knowing that I don’t have to go through this alone.”

“If you need to talk, I’m just a phone call away.”

“I know.” Chuck reaches for the handle on the door and just before he opens the door he turns and says, “See you around?”

She does something that surprises him for the second time tonight, she leans over and kiss him on the cheek, her lips linger for a few seconds longer than necessary.

She’s still close to him when she says, “See you around.” She smiles, and he returns that smile.

He doesn’t stop smiling until he falls asleep, and even then there’s a ghost of a smile on his lips.


End file.
